The Washington Capitals have won a hockey game.
After losing six-straight games in regulation for the first time during the Alex Ovechkin era and seeing two of their longtime teammates (Dmitry Orlov & Garnet Hathaway) traded to Boston for a boatload of draft picks plus forward Craig Smith, the Caps unloaded their frustration on the New York Rangers in the best way possible, erupting for a six-pack of goals against one of the league’s best teams and one of the league’s best goaltenders in Igor Shesterkin.
The scoring:
- TJ Oshie got his Caps started off on the right foot with a power play goal, executing a perfect tip of an Erik Gustafsson point shot for the second game in a row. It was also the second game in a row that Oshie scored the game-opening goal for the Caps. TJ was an absolute beast in this game. More on that later. 1-0 Caps. Assists to Gustafsson & Evgeny Kuznetsov.
- Barclay Goodrow tied it up for the Rangers, and that would conclude the scoring for the 1st period. 1-1.
- Early in the 2nd period, Oshie would get his 2nd goal of the game, wiring a rocket of a shot past Shesterkin after taking a pass from Dylan Strome. 2-1 Caps. Assists to Strome & Gustafsson.
- Less than 4 minutes later, Tom Wilson scored a beautiful goal, taking a pass from Trevor van Riemsdyk and fighting off a check from Norris trophy winner Adam Fox before beating Shesterkin clean with a slick shot past his blocker. 3-1 Caps. Assists to van Riemsdyk & Alex Ovechkin.
- And about 5 minutes after that, Sonny Milano would extend the lead, crashing the net and banging home a rebound after Oshie just narrowly missed netting the hat trick, ringing the iron behind Shesterkin. But it was probably a good thing for Milano to get the goal instead of Oshie getting another one, as Sonny had been severely snakebit recently. So it was good to see him get on the board. 4-1 Caps, assists to Kuznetsov & Oshie.
- And then before the period was done, Kuznetsov would join the party himself, scoring on a breakaway on a beautiful backhanded move past Shesterkin that would ultimately spell the end of Shesterkin’s afternoon. 5-1 Caps, assists to Nicolas Aube-Kubel & Martin Fehervary.
- In the 3rd period, Chris Kreider would get one back for the Rangers during a 5-on-3 man advantage – the Rangers’ second 5-on-3 man advantage of the game, for those keeping score at home – 5-2 Caps.
- Then Kuznetsov would score on another breakaway set up by Ovechkin, this time against Jaroslav Halak and this time using the patented Peter Forsberg move. It was gorgeous. 6-2 Caps, assists to Ovechkin & Wilson.
- Kaapo Kakko would get a goal in garbage time for the Rangers (28 seconds left), but truly, this was a blowout. Rangers’ head coach Gerard Gallant said after the game that his team “got their asses kicked.” Final score: 6-3, Capitals.
Some additional game notes/observations:
- Caps’ head coach Peter Laviolette finally reunited the Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson line that has been so effective in seasons past, and it paid off immediately and in a big way: Kuznetsov scored 2 goals and added 2 assists, Wilson scored a goal and added an assist, and Ovechkin had 2 assists. The chemistry of the line was immediately and consistently evident, as they were creating grade-A scoring chances all afternoon long. The line was a combined +7 in the game. Laviolette might want to think about leaving them together.
- And speaking of Tom Wilson, the Caps’ prized power forward has scored 3 goals in 4 games since returning from injury. On the season as a whole so far he already has 5 goals in just 12 games played, which would put him on pace for 34 goals over a full 82-game season. Not bad at all for having had offseason ACL surgery.
- TJ Oshie had a Gordie Howe hat trick in this game and added a 2nd goal to it just for good measure. As previously mentioned, he was an absolute beast in this game. The Caps were on a major slide and probably feeling pretty bad about themselves, but TJ dragged everybody into the fight in this game and basically said “Hey, we aren’t giving up on this season just yet.” His early goal got the Caps off on the right foot, and even after the Rangers tied it up, he basically said “Nope, we aren’t losing this game”, scoring the 2-1 goal to put the Caps ahead again (and this time it’d stay that way), not to mention adding an assist and a fight to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick. The fight really got the crowd (and his team) even more fired up than they already were. He also threw a huge hit on Rangers’ defenseman Ryan Lindgren early in the game, knocking him out of the game. Overall, it was an A+ performance by one of the heart & souls of this team, TJ Oshie, who in this game also happened to be playing his 500th game as a Washington Capital. The Osh-Babe sure knows how to celebrate a milestone.
- The Caps’ penalty kill was excellent in this game, allowing just the one 5-on-3 goal when the game was already long out of hand for the Rangers. As previously mentioned, the Caps had to kill off another 5-on-3 earlier in the game when the game was still close, and they did a terrific job of it. For the game, the Rangers’ power play was 1-for-5. The Caps went 1-for-2 on their own power play.
- And finally, as alluded to earlier, the Caps were able to chase the reigning Vezina trophy winner from the net with their 5th goal of the afternoon, as Jaroslav Halak would replace Igor Shesterkin in the Rangers’ net for the start of the 3rd period. But Shesterkin really wasn’t bad at all in the game, it’s just that the Caps created a ton of grade-A scoring opportunities for themselves and he was the unlucky guy who happened to be in the net today.
The Caps have a short turnaround time after this one, as they’ll be right back at it in Buffalo early tomorrow afternoon. Another huge game. But they are now 1-0-0 in the Craig Smith era, which I’m saying jokingly but at the same time – reading comments from Bruins fans – they were really sad to see this guy go as they all say he was the hardest worker on their team. So who knows… Maybe I’m not saying it jokingly?
